Lessons in Cookie Making
by Marie Nomad
Summary: Tony tried to bake some cookies and failed. So, Pepper decided to show him how it's done.


This fic has been inspired by the following prompts from the LJ community Its_always_been. Prompt: Baking Cookies" and "Licking Frosting" All characters don't belong to me. They belong to Marvel Comics. I like reviews.

Lessons In Cookie Making

By Marie Nomad

Pepper hummed to herself as she made her way to the vast manor. She had been very busy getting ready for the Christmas Season; she had to set up the secret Santa exchange, plan the office party, plan a huge dinner for the Avengers, and find a great present for her billionaire boyfriend. The second she opened the door, she heard the familiar sounds of a fire extinguisher and a fire alarm coming from the kitchen. "Tony!" She flung off her high heel shoes and run to see a wreck of a kitchen. In the middle of it was Dummy using the extinguisher on what looks like the remains of the oven and Tony waving the smoke out of the window.

"What the hell happened here?" Pepper exclaimed as she looked at the damage. Her sense of relief that Tony was okay was replace by a burning anger of a destroyed kitchen that could only be caused by one man.

"Hi, honey." Tony said as he turned around and grinned. "You're home early."

"I am asking again, what happened here?" Pepper crossed her arms and stared him down.

"Well, I wanted to bake some cookies and..."

Pepper picked up a melted cookie tray that was covered in a black shell of burnt cookie dough. "I see."

"Yeah, apparently, cooking cookies at 800 degrees Fahrenheit is not a good idea."

Pepper paused. "The oven can only go up to 500 degrees."

"I also learned that ovens are not made to resist temperatures at 800 degrees Fahrenheit. "

"Forgive me, Miss. Potts, I warned him about upgrading the ovens." Jarvis apologized.

"Don't worry, Jarvis had already ordered a new oven and we are getting pizza tonight." Tony waved off.

"Never mind, I will get a sandwich." Pepper announced as she opened the fridge door only to see several pans of glop sitting there, she could have sworn that one of them was glowing. She slammed the door and put her hand to her head.

"I tried to make those no bake cookies too."

"One of them is glowing! Where did you get the recipes?"

"Pepper, you know me better than that. I cooked the way that I learned everything else: Trial and Error. And when I said everything, I meant _everything._" Tony said as he waggled his eyebrows.

"Baking is not trial and error! You want to cook right? Clean up this kitchen, get rid of those... experiments, replace everything, and I will show you how to bake." Pepper ordered as she turned around. "And don't use the armor this time!"

"Yes, Ma'am."

_One completely renovated and restocked kitchen later..._

"Now, we are ready to bake." Pepper said as she changed into a pair of blue jeans, a sweater, and a cute apron. She glanced over at the somewhat exhausted Tony Stark who had changed into some clean clothes. "What kind of cookies do you want?"

"Gingerbread men and women cookies."

"Okay." Pepper got out the cookie mix and the other ingredients and carefully measured out the ingredients. "Look, when you bake, especially if you are starting out, you have to follow the recipe. Even if you are a genius."

"What about experimenting?"

Pepper glared at him and Tony backed off.

"Right. No experimenting."

"Now, we bake."

The two started to work. Pepper had to admit that when Tony was actually following the directions, he was a decent cook. Pepper and Tony cut out the shapes. Tony with the gingerbread men and Pepper with the gingerbread women. After that, Pepper put the cookies in the oven with it set to the right temperature.

Tony got up to leave when Pepper grabbed his elbow.

"Where do you think you're going?"

"Workshop."

"No. I know you. You are going to get so wrapped up in whatever you are doing that the cookies are going to burn again. We are waiting right here. Jarvis, turn the TV on to the news."

It took forever for Tony to wait for the cookies to get cooked at the right temperature and even longer when Pepper ordered him to wait until they are cooled.

"Can we put frosting on them?" Tony asked in a cute childlike way.

"Of course. That's part of the fun. Let me guess, you want to turn them into Iron Gingerbread Men."

"Just the men, you can turn them into Iron Gingerbread Women. I got frosting." Tony got out various frosting dispensers with different colors.

Pepper glanced at the different frostings. "All right." She grabbed a red one and started to color in the middle.

"No pink?" Tony asked as he frosted his cookies.

"No way. My Iron Woman is going to command respect and pink doesn't do it." Pepper said. "I am not having her be a clone of yours. It will be silver and red."

"Ooohhh… sounds sexy. Will your Iron Woman have great big guns like War Machine?"

Pepper shook her head as she put in some silver frosting. "I don't think so. Iron Woman will be focused on rescuing others. Rhodey can have huge guns and you can have the power to destroy stuff. I want this one to… just focus on helping others."

"I see. So, high defense, low offensive weaponry."

"You can say that." Pepper started to put the final touches on her cookies. "And Iron Woman can protect Iron Man and War Machine if they ever get into any trouble."

"Name one time that Rhodey and I got into trouble." Tony dared.

"Savage Land?"

"Hey, it's not my fault that villain managed to strip all of us naked and held us captive." Tony picked up his cookie and admired it. "Oh yeah, this is a real cookie. Just a few more and I can have a fleet of cookies." He gave Pepper his cookie. "Try one, I bet you that he tastes delicious."

Pepper accepted the cookie, licked the head nice and slow, and promptly bit it off. "Now, do you see the reward of patience?" The woman asked as she sucked her fingers.

"Oh yeah." Tony felt a surge of excitement below the belt.

"Here's my cookie." Pepper handed her boyfriend her 'Iron Woman' cookie.

Tony bit its arm. "Hmmm… delicious. I kinda prefer the real thing though."

"Tonight. Promise." Pepper kissed him on the lips and then walked off.

He waited until Pepper was into her office and then he asked Jarvis, "Did you get the scan?"

"The designations have been processed. Red and silver with high defense but lower offensive capabilities. I told you that pink and purple are not the colors Miss Potts would have chosen."

"Yeah yeah. Looks like Pepper will be a very happy girl on Christmas." Tony whistled as he put the cookies away but made sure that there was one Iron Couple on a dish sitting side by side holding hands.

The End


End file.
